Classic Wallpaper Pattern: Toiles de Jouy

Toile de Jouy is a type of pattern that dates back to the 18th century. Typically featuring two-toned vignettes of idealized country life in fantastical landscapes, toiles (pronounced twall) can look very traditional and old-world. But contemporary designers are shaking up toiles with surprising color combinations and irreverent scenes.

The patterns are based on a 1760 innovation in textile printing where manufacturers were able to switch from block printing to a more mechanized copperplate printing. The first factory to adopt this new technology was in Jouy-en-Josas (hence the name), near the French court at Versailles. The technique soon spread through brazen industrial espionage to Britain, and then to Colonial America.

Historically, the patterns were typically black, blue or red on a white or cream background. Subjects included aristocratic figures in an idealized country setting, famous buildings and monuments, and "Chinese" figures in an imaginary landscape of pagodas and fretwork bridges. Today, designers like Manuel Canovas have reinvented the traditional patterns in rich, saturated color combinations, while others have applied a more traditional toile aesthetic to contemporary — even subversive — vignettes.

10. London by Timorous Beasties, featuring urban vignettes like a mugging at gunpoint and drunk vagrants, $242/roll at The Future Perfect

A few artists and designers have found toile to be a medium ripe for cultural commentary, since historically the scenes featured only white people engaged in absurdly idealized pastoral activities. Designer Sheila Bridges created "Harlem Toile" in part to send up racial caricatures and prejudices. For "Spying on China," artist Jessica Smith took the Chinoiseries often featured in antique toiles and added tools of espionage. And Dan Funderburgh took his commission for the Chinatown Soccer Club and created Chinatown Toile, with scenes like a Chinese delivery truck, a grocery, and a soccer player stretching in a park.